Sport Studies
About the Field
In December 1971, I was in my second year teaching and coaching at Vermont Academy. While searching for graduate programs in history, an old family friend—Ted Schmitt—introduced me to the new UMass master's degree in sport management. UMass was only the second university to offer such a program. Coming from a liberal arts college, I could hardly believe that you could actually earn credit, let alone a degree, in a field like this. I signed up, and my wife Donna and I moved to Amherst in June of 1972, expecting to stay for just one year before moving on. However, that plan changed once I began my coursework. Surprisingly, there were no courses focused on the actual administration of sports. Instead, I enrolled in a marketing management course in the business school and a sport history course with Guy Lewis, who was in what was then the Department of Men’s Physical Education, located in the Curry Hicks Building (photo above).
Little did I know that the separate Departments of Men’s and Women’s PE were merging and evolving into new departments that included Sport Studies and Exercise Science, both of which would lead nationwide growth in their respective fields. I had unknowingly stepped into a remarkable intellectual laboratory. Sport Studies had three faculty members who were pioneers in new sub-disciplines: Guy Lewis in sport history and later sport management, John Loy in Sport Sociology, and Hal VanderZwaag in sport philosophy.
That fall, UMass granted final approval for a new PhD program in Sport Studies, and I was fortunate to be admitted as part of the inaugural group, which included Bob Goodhue, Susan Birrell, Peter Donnelly, and Steve Mosher. We were indeed lucky students. While I had encountered many experts at Bowdoin College, none surpassed the depth of knowledge that Guy Lewis and John Loy demonstrated in their courses on the history and sociology of sport. Additionally, we participated in monthly seminars that drew experts from North America and Europe, creating an intellectual alchemy that transformed play and games into legitimate scholarship.
From 1972 onward, my professional and academic interests have been focused on sport history and sport management (the successor to sport administration). You can find links below to some of my published work, which align with the UMass sport management requirements I learned from my adviser, Guy Lewis.
U Mass today
U Mass has shifted from the broad vision of Sport Studies to a focus on Sport Management, where it is a world leader.
How Boston Played (1982, reprinted 2003)
The Book's Background
Anyone enrolled in a PhD program should consider finding a suitable dissertation topic as early as possible. In many programs, however, the adviser often dictates the topic—sometimes for valid reasons, and other times not. My adviser, Guy Lewis, was anything but a dictator. He was always there for support when I needed him, but I had to identify my own topics and then consult him, which was perfectly fine with me.
My dissertation evolved from my master’s thesis, which was rooted in my undergraduate training and teaching of Latin and Classical Literature, focusing on how sports-like activities contributed to community-building in ancient societies. Even before defending my thesis, I recognized that the same question about community was relevant to my birthplace during a time of significant upheaval between two major wars. This realization became the foundation of my dissertation, which, after some revisions, was published as How Boston Played (1982). This work was among the early wave of academic monographs in sport history and received positive reviews, leading to its republication in 2003 with a new introduction.
Remarkably, it is still available on Amazon. For those interested in pursuing higher education in this field, understanding the sport management UMass requirements is crucial. If you're looking into the UMass Amherst sport management requirements, it’s best to familiarize yourself with the specific criteria early on to ensure a smooth academic journey. Click Here.
Book cover of 'How Boston Played' about sports and community from 1865-1915.
Sport Marketing – The U Mass Connection
The Book's Background
It all started with a manuscript Bernie Mullin developed when he arrived at UMass in 1977 with marching orders to create course content in the sport administration area, which was neglected in the curriculum of my time there. With a DBA from Kansas, great energy, and a talent for blending theory with the practical world, Bernie steadily wrote over 300 pages for his new sport marketing class. This material began circulating (with his blessing) to numerous programs in the field. Why would he give his genius away for free? Mostly because he wanted to help build the sub-discipline of sport management. But he also knew it was creating demand for the book to come, especially given the UMass sport management requirements that were evolving.
How did I get involved? Simple. Guy Lewis. In 1978, Bernie and Guy hatched something called SMARTSS: Sport Management Arts and Sciences Symposium. They aimed to bring together people from academia and the sport industry to articulate questions that might drive an agenda of shared research. It was a dream worth pursuing, an approach that Tier I, land grant universities would later call “engagement,” encouraging faculty to conduct research that mattered to their public constituents.
At the time, I was working as an assistant commissioner with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, which held one quarter of the NCAA membership. Bernie invited me to speak at the symposium in Amherst, which aligned with UMass Amherst sport management requirements. We kept in touch throughout my time at the University of Washington and Robert Morris.
Then he called me in 1987. He was leaving UMass to become VP for Marketing with the Pittsburgh Pirates—a team in dire need of serious, sophisticated marketing. He still looked to turn his marketing manuscript into a book. Would I join as a coauthor and help flesh out more examples on the theoretical bones? I was all in. The years 1987-88 were exciting, including my Robert Morris students and I working with Bernie to develop, administer, process, and evaluate perhaps the first machine-readable fan survey ever employed in pro sports. We also secured a book publisher: Rainer Martens and Human Kinetics.
However, the manuscript lagged. I moved to UNH, and Bernie had less and less time for writing. Rainer was patient, but we knew we needed another partner. I told Bernie I knew just the right free agent: Bill Sutton, a Robert Morris colleague from 1982-1986, who had moved on to Ohio State. Bill said yes, and we were on our way. The first edition came out in 1993, and we were fortunate to have a publisher who believed in us and gave us great leeway. The fourth edition has even been a #1 Bestseller on Amazon.
With the fifth edition, we decided to turn the lead over to a younger group of scholars. Each new edition included new theory and new examples, such as the escalator metaphor for understanding fan engagement with teams. We also emphasized case studies and research sidebars, drawing from history, sociology, psychology, and beyond, which are all essential aspects of the sport management UMass requirements.
Fourth edition of Sport Marketing book with basketball game cover image.